Laptops.

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:55 am

How about recommending a laptop for an old fart who' only going to be using it for mail, music and surfin'.

I'm going to be on the road on occasion over the next 7 years and would like to take some of my cable business and surfin habits with me.

Any recommendations for a lappy for say, under a grand?

No gaming needed.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:10 am

Brand new, it's hard to beat Dell for "bang for the buck". Of their line of laptops, they have the home/entry level Inspiron, and the more business oriented line..the Latitudes, which I recommend. Generally a higher quality unit, more a true 3 year warranty laptop.

My favorite though, the IBM Thinkpads. They really are that much better...rugged as heck, simply top quality units. They do come at a price though.

Remember a couple of things to consider when selecting laptops...as they generally come in three categories.

*Ultra portables...usually no spindles, 12" screen, under 3 pounds, long battery runtime.
*Midsized...a spindle, 14" screen, 4-5 pounds...still somewhat portable.
*Full sized desktop replacements. One or two spindles, 15" or higher screen 6 pounds or more, poor battery runtime.

If I was shopping around now and I had a 1 grand budget to spend on a laptop, I would purchase a factory recon'd IBM Thinkpad T series. BrandonB I think had some thread going on not long ago, and I remember someone elses thread, they had a link to some online place related to Overstock.com..this place had lots of factory refurb laptops. They had IBM Thinkpad T series, Pentium 1.something mobile CPU, 512 megs, for something like 600 bucks. I would spend my thousand bucks on something like that, than try to get a new laptop for 1 grand that would be in my opinion a lesser grade.

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:36 pm

Ok...the dummy question.

What are spindles?

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 1:15 pm

downhill wrote:Ok...the dummy question.

What are spindles?

Disk drives

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDe ... 84,00.html

mmione · Post by **mmione** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:58 pm

i have an inspiron 6000d and its 15.4" and it works great, you can get them now for cheap and if you get the 9 cell battery, you get 5+ hours of runtime.

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:15 am

Dell would be my first choice then it would be IBM, HP and Sony.

Maybe you can head over to a Best Buy in your area and see what size of laptop you like and then order from one of the above sites. Nothing beats hands on before ordering a product for a cheaper price eleswhere.

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:21 am

Perhaps you missed this thread

https://www.speedguide.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=192055

I would personally order an X1 from Dell

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/product ... l=en&s=bsd

This bad boy is ultra thin, ultra small and would be a dream to travel with. It would handle all your needs on the road. Purchase a 300 gig external drive and bring your music with you on the road.

Who did you piss off to get thrown on the road so close to retirement.

f3nd1 · Post by **f3nd1** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:48 am

I guess if you are looking something small and thin, you should take Sony Viao

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:44 am

f3nd1 wrote:I guess if you are looking something small and thin, you should take Sony Viao

Smaller than the X1?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:16 pm

If looking at ultra portables....one key thing for me is still having a full sized keyboard. IBMs X series is still full sized, us guys with big hands don't have to crippled our wrists trying to use them. Barely over 2.5 pounds, standard battery...over 7 hours runtime, with extra better over 10 hours.

Sony has a lot of "looks cool whiz bang" features..but man oh man, piss poor support. Something goes wrong, it's easier to throw it out and get a new one.

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:32 pm

Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote: Who did you piss off to get thrown on the road so close to retirement.

LOL...Actually nobody. I just took a different job. No calls.

No back breaking labor.

Actually it's a major step up the ladder. I had it once before for a couple of weeks and decided I didn't want it then. A mistake I think.

The pay is a LOT better but without the overtime, I'll make between 2 and 5 grand less a year. At this point in my life, me no care.

Thanks for all the tips, guys.

twwabw · Post by **twwabw** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 6:22 pm

IBM, or... maybe an IBM. Or, if you get a deal on one, an IBM. I've had Com-craps; and a few Dells. But IBM's are tough to beat. Rock solid; stable. No whiz-bang, but good stuff.

Agree w/YOSC- best keyboard around. But then again- they always have. Ahhhh..... the sweet touch of an IBM Selectric...... (damn I'm old!)

cyberskye · Post by **cyberskye** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 6:55 pm

Lefty wrote:Disk drives

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDe ... 84,00.html

Optical drive - I haven't seen a lappy yet without a hdd.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:57 pm

I just got a thinkpad at work.

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:26 pm

For under $1000, I find that Acer has some pretty decent products.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:22 am

cyberskye wrote:Optical drive - I haven't seen a lappy yet without a hdd.

All 3 actually. The bay for a second hard drive, a cd-rom, or a floppy drive.

Speaking of hard drives...one thing to remember is, the main reason some laptops appear to run painfully slower than desktop counterparts...is their hard drive speed. The less expensive models will some with excruciatingly slow 4200rpm hard drives. Midrange models with come with 5400rpm drives...and the better higher performance ones...7200rpm drives.

ace · Post by **ace** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:09 pm

If you are trying not to spend a fortune check out http://www.dellauction.com I bought a laptop from there about 3-4 years ago and it was in perfect condition and is still in use today, actually everyday. The prices are great if you ask me. When I need another laptop I will most likely buy from them again.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:34 pm

You can get one of the new Thinkpad Z60m widescreens direct from Lenovo for around $699 or so...probably need to add a little RAM, but you'll get a 40 GB hard drive and widescreen 15.4" and great battery life, good enough for what you plan to do...

twwabw · Post by **twwabw** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:12 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Speaking of hard drives...one thing to remember is, the main reason some laptops appear to run painfully slower than desktop counterparts...is their hard drive speed. The less expensive models will some with excruciatingly slow 4200rpm hard drives. Midrange models with come with 5400rpm drives...and the better higher performance ones...7200rpm drives.

And the IBM Z series have SATA. Have I mentioned IBM lately?

Just ordered up a couple T43's. MMMmmmmm..... Titanium......

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:26 am

twwabw wrote:And the IBM Z series have SATA. Have I mentioned IBM lately?

Just ordered up a couple T43's. MMMmmmmm..... Titanium......

Yup...the X series also are doing SATA too...I'm setting up a few more of those for a home healthcare client. Getting pretty quick!

Seen their widescreen Z series yet? Did a few of those a few months ago.

I'm not sure what their new 3000 series family line is about though...seems like they're trying to step into the entry level bargain market with this one.

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:05 am

downhill wrote:LOL...Actually nobody. I just took a different job. No calls. No back breaking labor.

Actually it's a major step up the ladder. I had it once before for a couple of weeks and decided I didn't want it then. A mistake I think.

The pay is a LOT better but without the overtime, I'll make between 2 and 5 grand less a year. At this point in my life, me no care.

Thanks for all the tips, guys.

Well then congrats!